I'm looking to buy a new TV and I was going to order off of Amazon due to free shipping, no tax, and easy delivery. The only problem is warranty. Is amazon the best place I could order from or do you have any other suggestions? Thanks.

I ordered my 52" Samsung there for the same reasons. Delivery was great, guy called me from the company to setup the appt, they called ahead of time to verify I would be there and they were pretty much right on time. As for the warranty, I don't think Amazon offers anything past 30 days, after that it's up to the manufacturers warranty (probably 1 year). That's the case for pretty much everywhere though. I would be wary of places that sell their own warranties in addition to the TV price.

my experience buying a TV from Amazon was an absolute nightmare.
two broken tv's in a row (busted glass). And dealing with customer service was horrible (India call center).

I bought a PS3 from them about 2 weeks ago and it came really fast but was broken. This time the replacement was SUPER fast. my PS3 broke at 5:00pm on thursday, and i had the replacement in my hand the next day at 3:55pm. So they did an ok job this time.

I would not have bought from them, but I got a recognition award at work and the gift was an amazon certificate.

I generally try to steer clear of companys like amazon. I don't like having to talk to someone in india when I have a problem in america. And i really hate having to repeat everything i am saying over and over again. lol.

I would not have bought from them, but I got a recognition award at work and the gift was an amazon certificate.

When the recognition award was granted to honor you for accumulating the most web surfing time when you were supposed to be working... yea that pretty much HAS to be accompanied by an online gift certificate.

I've ordered three tvs from amazon, and all three went smoothly. Smaller tvs (37 inch and below) ship by normal ups, and larger ones ship by ceva. I live in rural southern oklahoma, yet in all three cases I received my tv in less than a week. One tv I had to return, and I had no problem returning it through ups, it was a smaller one though, but they gave me the shipping label and that was that. On the big tv the delivery man said that if I had to return it he would just come back, put it in the box and take it away.

My experience with Amazon was great. Quick, professional delivery and no problems. I also got several price-match refunds, although unfortunately they don't do that anymore. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from Amazon, even on a big-ticket item.

Just be careful. They have some internal metrics and if they decide the value of your returns are too high (ie TVs are high) they can just close your account. This has happened to a lot of folks including myself.

You don't necessarily have to be abusive for it to happen, as I provided documentation with my 2 TV returns (photos, etc)... and had talked to Pioneer before I went back to the vendor. Amazon admitted my returns were justified but closed the account anyways. Some people who had this happen lost gift cards and such. I wasted a couple of weeks e-mailing back and forth to no avail.

Just be careful. They have some internal metrics and if they decide the value of your returns are too high (ie TVs are high) they can just close your account. This has happened to a lot of folks including myself.

You don't necessarily have to be abusive for it to happen, as I provided documentation with my 2 TV returns (photos, etc)... and had talked to Pioneer before I went back to the vendor. Amazon admitted my returns were justified but closed the account anyways. Some people who had this happen lost gift cards and such. I wasted a couple of weeks e-mailing back and forth to no avail.

04.16.09 -- 12:36PM
By Josh Marshall
I've been saying on the site how much I hooked on my Amazon Kindle. But from the beginning my big worry has been the market power -- arbitrary power -- this gives Amazon over your entire book collection. Here's a story about a guy who bought a Kindle, liked it, used it, etc. But then Amazon decided he'd returned too many real world items. So they turned off his Amazon account, thus making his $300-plus Kindle into a mostly useless piece of plastic. He had to spend a lot of time begging and pleading with Amazon customer service to be allowed to use his Kindle again."

Argh greenland now I want to register there and post but I'll refrain.

That was one of the most infuriating things about the experience. When I got my account closed there were all of these others that had the same thing happen... and when we'd try to discuss it we got to hear all these "you scammers got what you deserved!" people that had no idea what they were talking about.

I had been using Amazon for years and years with no problems. I recall an HD DVD player that arrived mangled by the shipping company (like literally one of the feet was an inch off the ground, it was all misshapen) that I swapped for the exact same item... then a 5080 that had what is now known as "blotching". I think I was the first or second person at AVS to report this and pics are posted someplace. I opted to swap for a 5010 which arrived with what is now known as DSE. Mine is a horizontal line across the middle of the panel, all the way left to right... and some vertical streaks too. Again, nothing was documented about this defect yet... and it was very obvious even on solid colors.

Amazon cheerfully offered to exchange it, and even to let me hang onto the first one to make sure the new one wasn't worse. Then bam, account closed. To this day I still have the DSE 5010 and it's one of the worst cases of it I've seen. I wish I had kept the 5080 as it was only rarely visible on content... much less so than my 5010.

But I was offered no "appeal". They simply gave me a tally of my returns in $$ format, including the 5010 which I wasn't allowed to return. So that was like $5k.. and 95% of all my other orders were books/dvds so it was a small $$ in comparison. I sent pics of the defects, data from conversations with Pioneer... even links to discussions about the issues on AVS. Nada...

The 2 craziest things I heard were something like "Normal customers need to return 1-2 items over the lifetime of their accounts and you're wanting to return 2 TVs at over $5000 in a month." And "yes we agree that your TVs are defective, that isn't the issue. The issue is that some customers simply become unprofitable to us and it is not in our best interest to do business with them."

The 2 craziest things I heard were something like "Normal customers need to return 1-2 items over the lifetime of their accounts and you're wanting to return 2 TVs at over $5000 in a month." And "yes we agree that your TVs are defective, that isn't the issue. The issue is that some customers simply become unprofitable to us and it is not in our best interest to do business with them."

The defects aren't the issue? IOW, they must think that you caused the defects or you are too fussy about the quality of the TVs; probably the latter.

I recall this case, and I was thinking about it, before you recounted it. I don't see how you could have caused those problems, nor do I think you were being fussy, not even close.

I wish they would have provided the exact reason why they were closing the account. As you said, they wouldn't allow a second defective TV return in a month. No one knows what their limit is until a second defective TV return is allowed. If it were discretionary, I could understand it, but defective, that is ridiculous.

I buy from everyone, I even buy groceries on occassion. Amazon since 2000. Ebay since 2004. However, I consider whatever I buy on eBay a gamble, as in I will pay and not get anything back, but so far its been good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chamillitary

Really?? Sorry to hear. I've switched over from E-Bay to Amazon. In fact, I have a Nikon and a electric shaver that got shipped out yesterday. So far in my 3 years with Amazon, no problems at all.

I wish they would have provided the exact reason why they were closing the account. As you said, they wouldn't allow a second defective TV return in a month. No one knows what their limit is until a second defective TV return is allowed. If it were discretionary, I could understand it, but defective, that is ridiculous.

I honestly think there is no consistent metric that they use. I think they decide to prune the hedges occasionally so it's alot to do with timing, just my theory though.

I just looked back and I'd been doing business with them since 2001 actually, so like 7 years.

I buy from everyone, I even buy groceries on occassion. Amazon since 2000. Ebay since 2004. However, I consider whatever I buy on eBay a gamble, as in I will pay and not get anything back, but so far its been good.

Really?? Sorry to hear. I've switched over from E-Bay to Amazon. In fact, I have a Nikon and a electric shaver that got shipped out yesterday. So far in my 3 years with Amazon, no problems at all.

From most all reports, Amazon is a great place to purchase from and even return an item if there's a problem. The common denominator appears to be when multiple returns are done in a short period of time. Amazon is a volume seller operating on thin profit margins and every return eats into that thin margin. It sounds like their approach is to cut off those that are costing them money. If you never have a need for a return or occasionally a return, then it doesn't sound like you'll have any problems.